AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mikey turned on Moose as bitterly as the McGill would have. "What's wrong?" shouted Mikey. "Can't hear through that stinking helmet? Maybe I'll rip it off along with your head and shout down your neck!"
Allie grabbed Mikey's arm and held him firmly. It was enough to ratchet him down to a simmer.
Milos didn't say anything, he just stroked his chin, pondering the change in circumstance.
Squirrel looked at Allie, confused. "So why are you even with him if he can't skinjack, huh, huh?"
"There are more important things than skinjacking," Mikey snapped.
Squirrel shook his head. "No there's not."
Allie was about to launch into a hundred defenses of her relationship with Mikey, but Milos cut her off by saying, "Then we shall walk."
Squirrel looked at him slack-jawed. "But-But--"
"Did he jusht say we're walking?" asked Moose.
smiled. "Then allow us to accompany you. At least part of the way."
"No!" said Mikey.
Allie gently took Mikey's hand, holding it to reassure him--and also to make it clear to Milos that the two of them were together in every way that mattered.
"You can travel with us for a little while," Allie said. "I'm Allie. This is Mikey."
Moose gasped. "Allie the Outcasht?"
Mikey grabbed him by his face guard, pulled him close and growled in his face. "That's right. Touch her again and you'll wish you never died."
"Yesh shir," said Moose.
"Now," said Milos, "I suggest we get off this dock before we sink right through it." He gestured for Allie to take the lead, which she did--and although she never let go of Mikey's hand, she couldn't help but appreciate Milos's suave manner. Most of the boys she had met in Everlost were wild to the point of being feral. Allie never considered herself a lady, but for once it was nice to be treated like one. In her book Further Reasons for Caution, Mary Hightower has this to say about roving bands of skinjackers:
"While a single skinjacker is trouble enough, a group of wild skinjackers is a frightening prospect, indeed. These Afterlights caught between two worlds are to be pitied and feared, for the madness of flesh has infected their minds. If word reaches you of skinjackers in your area, it is best for all involved to steer clear of them, and report the sighting to an authority."
Chapter 9 Good Stewards
While Moose and Squirrel might have been the poster children illustrating Mary's point about "wild skinjackers," they were marginally civilized under Milos's guidance.
"They are not so bad," Milos told Mikey and Allie. "Or should I say, I have seen much worse."
The rain had given way to broken clouds, and they continued to follow the road around the lake. Mikey was sullen, and didn't talk much, and Moose and Squirrel, always lingering a dozen paces behind, snickered over their own private jokes. Milos, however was full of conversation for the newcomers. Allie supposed that, having had no one but Moose and Squirrel to talk to, he was starved for intelligent conversation. Milos told them that they had traveled as a group for several years. The "Deadlies" they called themselves. There were four-- Milos, Moose, Squirrel, and a girl they called Jackin' Jill. Jill, however, was gone, and Milos didn't say any more about it. Allie found it all interesting, but Mikey kept making exasperated sounds, as if listening to Milos was like torture.
"Mikey, you're being rude," Allie told him after a particularly loud groan.
"Sorry," said Mikey, although it sounded more like a curse than an apology.
Milos continued the tale of his afterlife, unoffended. As Allie suspected, Milos had come from Russia. "Russian-born, but American-dead," as he put it. His family had moved to America from St. Petersburg. Milos had been hanging out with friends on the roof of his apartment building, and had fallen off.
"It was a stupid way to go," Milos said.
Mikey scoffed. "My sister and I got hit by a train," he said. "We all die in stupid ways, and this is a stupid conversation." He picked up his pace, leaving them, and the conversation, behind. Allie thought to apologize to Milos for Mikey's behavior, but she was tired of making excuses for him. Anyway, Milos was a good sport about it.
"I would have gone into the light if I could," Milos told Allie. "But the light would not take me. It would just keep throwing me back."
This surprised Allie. Not even Mary, in her various volumes on Everlost lore, never mentioned anyone reaching the end of the tunnel, only to be denied admittance.
"Are you sure?" Allie asked. "Maybe you just never reached the light."
